General Motors says craftspeople and technicians at its design center are painstakingly restoring the 1 millionth Chevrolet Corvette, a 1992 white convertible that was swallowed whole 16 months ago when the earth opened up beneath the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky.
DETROIT, MI - It's pretty battered. Any car would be after falling into a giant sinkhole.
But General Motors says craftspeople and technicians at its design center are painstakingly restoring the 1 millionth Chevrolet Corvette, a 1992 white convertible that was swallowed whole 16 months ago when the earth opened up beneath the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky.
GM released photos of the process, seen above. The white Corvette is the second of three sinkhole-damaged ones that Chevy has vowed to restore.
The first was a 2009 Corvette ZR1 prototype known as the Blue Devil. The Blue Devil was only slightly damaged in its tumble toward Hell. Its restoration was finished last fall.
The National Corvette Museum is handling the restoration of the third Corvette, a 1962 model.
Five other Corvettes will be preserved in their "as-recovered" conditions, GM said, and will become part of a permanent exhibit at museum marking that fateful day in February 2014.
It was about 5:44 a.m. on Feb. 12, 2014 when museum officials received a call because a motion sensor had detected things were amiss in the museum's sky dome area. The Bowling Green Fire Department arrived moments later to find a 40-foot wide and 30-foot deep sinkhole. No one was hurt.
Eight Corvettes had fallen into the newly opened hole, however, including two on loan from General Motors and six others owned by the museum.
The year and model Corvettes affected by the sinkhole include:
- 1993 ZR-1 Spyder on loan from General Motors
- 2009 ZR1 "Blue Devil" on loan from General Motors
The other six vehicles were owned by the National Corvette Museum include:
- 1962 Black Corvette
- 1984 PPG Pace Car
- 1992 White 1 Millionth Corvette
- 1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Corvette
- 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette
- 2009 White 1.5 Millionth Corvette
The National Corvette Museum is located across the road from GM's Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant off of Interstate 65.
David Muller is the automotive and business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter